Zoe and Transition (What Else?)

Zoe is trying to jump, which is really cute to witness. She bends down and goes up but doesn’t quite leave the ground. If you jump, she will laugh hysterically. Her uncle said that jumping is a big developmental step (so is learning how to blow your nose).

She’s also become much more involved in getting dressed in the mornings. She is very cooperative when putting on pants and shirts (picking her arms or legs up to help you). After her clothes are on she picks up her feet as if to say: you’ve forgotten something! If you do not put her shoes on quickly she will start looking for them and yelling. She’s very insistent about putting on her shoes. It’s funny because she goes to a little hippie daycare where most of the kids take their shoes off or don’t wear them at all but she’s entered this new phase where she must have her shoes. I guess she feels they complete an outfit?

So, the shoe thing also brings up a tough issue. Often on the weekends she wants you to put on her shoes pretty much first thing in the morning. Then she walks to the front door and wants to go outside. One of the downsides to apartment life is that we do not have a yard, something she is definitely used to. I’m trying not to get too bummed about it because we are so close to Zilker and to two schools with great playgrounds. We have been to these places and they’re fun for her, but it does make me sad that she can’t just walk out her front or back door and into a yard.

The move has been a hard transition in a lot of ways. Sometimes Nate and I can’t believe how much we’ve gone through (six months of change already!) and we’re not all the way done yet. We did a ton of work to get our house ready to put on the market, lived apart for about six weeks, both got new jobs, stayed with friends for quite a while, now we’re under contract, living in an apartment, and planning on emptying our house and putting almost everything in storage. Our lease will end next September and at that point we’ll see if the economy is totally in the toilet and we’re all growing victory gardens, or if things are looking okay. We’ll also evaluate where our debt is and we might decide to buy, or we may rent for a bit longer and maybe get rid of all our debt. We are on a budget now and have a good plan to greatly reduce the bills we racked up while living in the house and then getting it ready to sell. There’s good and bad in our situation, as with everything.